


A Fullmetal mask

by scarlet_lupin



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Al knows what Ed is doing, Ed Is A Little Shit, Ed fools everyone, Edward Elric Keeps Alchemy, Edward Elric Keeps Automail, He Always Knows, Oh and Ed swears, Post-Promised Day, but not Al, confused Roy Mustang, ed knows exactly what he's doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 09:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13808442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarlet_lupin/pseuds/scarlet_lupin
Summary: For many years Ed has kept his smarts a secret, not his alchemy smarts, everyone knows how intellectually smart he is, but he never let people realise just how easy they were for him to read. He kept his cool calculating mind hidden behind brash pigheadedness and a neapolitan complex bigger than he is, only when Roy is in danger does his mask start to slip a little, and now the danger of the homunculi has passed is there still a need? Maybe everyone should get a chance to see this side of himself.





	A Fullmetal mask

_**"This is speech in Drachman"** _

"This is normal."

Set after the promised day, Ed still has his alchemy and his automail.

* * *

**Roy POV**

Sitting in the cold damp cell, I glared at the stockade cuffs that kept me from being able to use my hands, even a little movement would have been enough for me to make an attempt at a transmutation circle but apparently the Drachman's knew a bit about me. Hence why my hands were completely immobilised and why my ignition gloves had been one of the first things they confiscated, closely followed by my gun.

The sound of booted feet echoing through the prison reached me and I shifted my gaze from my useless hands to the bars of my cell, waiting to see who had come to gloat today. Of course I rarely understood what they were actually saying, but I got the gist of it.

Oh goodie its 'Smarmy smirks a lot', I've missed him. With him is a short blond I haven't seen here before, although he looked oddly familiar. After a second of scrutinising his face I realise, the reason he looks so familiar is because its Fullmetal. What the hell Edward is doing all the way out here is well and truly beyond me, but he appears to be blending in surprisingly well, dressed in the familiar black and green garb of the Drachman foot soldiers. In fact if I hadn't recognised his face I never would have suspected him, what with the way he was speaking perfectly accented Drachman with the other guard.

Fullmetal smirked in a particularly disturbing way and muttered something I didn't catch, then 'Smarmy smirks a lot' thew his head back and roared with laughter at whatever Ed had said.

Finally facing me the Ed look a like spoke, "you are ze Brigadier General Mustang? Ze Flame Alchemist?"

Startled by the broken sounding and heavily accented Amestrian coming from the familiar face, I was nodding my head before I could stop myself.

"Humpf, clearly your reputation vas exaggerated."

"Hey! At least I don't need a booster seat sit up to the table!"

"You zink I 'ave not 'eard all ze 'eight jokes before?"

I was stunned, maybe this really was just a look a like, there was no way Fullmetal would let an insult to his height like that go without a major explosion, especially from me. This guy hadn't even twitched.

"Uh..."

**_"This one's intelligent."_ **

'Smarmy smirks a lot' was laughing again and I got the feeling I just got badly insulted, however I had no idea what he could have said and therefor no way to counter it.

_**"Hey do you think we have time to teach him some manners before we move him?"** _

_**"I wish, but the higher ups are keen to move him further from the border. They don't want to risk anyone coming after him, he is a high ranking officer after all."** _

_**"Yeah, I suppose you're right."** _

'Smarmy smirks a lot' was opening my cell door and the Ed look a like sauntered in, looking more like he was taking a casual stroll than approaching a potentially dangerous captive. His hands closed around the middle of the stockade cuffs and then he swiftly yanked upwards, harshly pulling me to my feet. Hissing through my teeth at the sharp jab of pain in my wrists, I staggered my way after the swishing blonde braid in front of me and tried not think about choking the bastard with it, as he led me out of the cell. 'Smarmy smirks a lot' had moved a little way from the door and had his gun out now and trained on me.

When the blond turned to shut the cell door behind me, I locked gazes with him for a moment and I was once again struck by how much he looked like Ed. When I was caught in that gold stare I felt like something significant was being relayed to me, almost like he was telling me to 'get ready'. Carefully I tracked his gaze as he looked down at my cuffs then back at my face, before he slowly let go of the wood and leant forwards slightly to push the door shut behind me.

Briefly his body hid my hands from the sight of the other guard and I took that chance, throwing my cuffed hands up and over the short blonds head before either guard had time to react. Pressing my cuffs up against his throat, using the flat wooden top edge of the cuff to almost choke my captive and keep him pressed close to my body as a sort of human shield, I started to back away from my cell and down the corridor.

The blond guard grabbed wildly at the wood choking him and managed to croak out **_"GO! Alert the Commander!"_**

Again I had no idea what he said but the other guard jerked out a quick nod and then turned tail and ran the other way, leaving just us in the prison hallway now. As soon as we were alone the hands on the cuffs shifted their grip and then twisted slightly, before I knew it the blonde guard was free of my choke hold and once again holding my restraints.

Blinking stupidly, it took me a second to fully grasp what was happening as the guard grabbed the lock on the side of the cuff and simply pulled on it till it snapped. As soon as I registered I was free I took a swing at the guards face, he dodged it and growled out "would you quit it?! If this is the thanks I get for helping to bust your useless ass out of jail next time I'll just leave you there!"

"Ed?!"

Irritated gold eyes rolling he responded "no its Riza, of course its me. Honestly, you call your self a politician but you can't tell when someones acting? Come on matchstick lets go, we don't have all day, they'll be back with reinforcements soon."

"I...Uh...Okay?"

I still hadn't fully processed everything that was going on before I was being yanked down the hallway. One hallway after another we went down, they all looked the same to me but Edward seemed to know where he was going, which I was extremely grateful for because I was completely lost. I nearly tripped over him when he suddenly stoped in the middle of the corridor, dropping to his knees and pulling a grate off the wall near the ground. I quick gesture and "come on" later and he vanished into the hole in the wall.

Crouching down I peered into the hole and realised a problem quite quickly, "I won't fit!"

I just barely caught a disembodied sigh followed by a clapping sound, then blue lightning raced around the hole and it enlarged its self enough for me to fit through. Not wanting to get caught, I quickly grabbed the grate and slid into the hole, holding the piece of metal in place as Edward sealed the stonework back into place around it.

Shifting about as much as the small tunnel would allow, I tried to find my short blond rescuer in the dark. Finally catching a dim glint of gold, I leaned forwards and whispered "Fullmetal what are you doing here? I didn't think the higher ups would sanction a rescue mission for me, far too risky, let alone send you..."

"It was intentional, they figured I would get caught too and that way they could kill too birds with one stone. Grumand was all for following your request to not send anyone after you, but some of the brass isn't happy with the changes we've been making and I think they're hoping I'll get us both killed on this rescue op. I can't wait to see their faces when we get back."

I could picture the shit eating grin that would be on his face as he said that last bit, but I was more concerned with how we would be getting out of here. "So whats the plan? Scratch that, do you even have one?"

"Of course I have a plan! I always have a plan."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Shut it Snappy we need to get moving, the rest of our team and Al are waiting at the border for extraction, we need to get to them before it gets light out. It will be much harder to sneak about in daylight here."

I was ready to protest that new nickname but before I could get so much as get a word out, Ed was already crawling away from me and down the tunnel, towards freedom. Closing my mouth with a slight scowl, I started crawling after him, muttering quietly to myself about irritating blond midgets.

Just ahead of me there was a loud 'clang' followed by a quiet 'whomp', slowing my crawl a bit I soon found myself at the end of the tunnel and facing a six foot drop into deep snow. Edward was standing a short distance away, keen gold eyes raking the surroundings and searching for pursuers. Carefully shimmying to the edge of the tunnel I rolled onto my back, wiggled my fingers into a crevice above where the grate should have been and pulled myself up and out so I could drop down and land on my feet.

"Come on lets go."

Grimacing at the footprints everywhere, I followed Ed as he led me across the snow covered plains surrounding the Drachman military base. His steps never faltered and I had to wonder just how he knew where the hell he was going. They had brought me here in broad daylight and I still had no idea how to get back to Amestris, mentally shrugging I decided I might as well just ask him. "How do you know which direction we're supposed to be going in?"

The blooming of an extra large cloud of white fog in front of Ed, barely visible in the darkness, told me he had sighed even if I couldn't hear it. As he turned to face me I was startled by how different his eyes looked, bleached in the moonlight they looked more silver than gold, same went for the usually blond braid hanging over his shoulder. Gesturing to the sky he said "the stars. See that really big bright one over there?"

Following his pointing hand, I nodded when I spotted the one he was referring to.

"That is the north star, it always shows you which way is north. So we just need to keep heading away from it and we will get back to the southern border."

"Oh."

Silence fell as we once again trekked onwards without feeling the need to speak to each other.

After what must have been hours I was beginning to feel the strain of hiking through knee high snow, not to mention the cold. I could only imagine it must be worse for Edward, where the snow came up to my knees it landed about mid thigh on the sixteen year old and his automail ports must be killing him in this weather. All in all I had been expecting the Drachmans to be breathing down our necks what with his usual loud way of expressing his displeasure at things, but I hadn't heard a word of complaint from the usually ornery blond. It was frankly down right disturbing.

Up ahead a rather large mountain loomed, which confused me as surely they should be heading for Briggs.

"Where are we going Fullmetal? That doesn't look like Briggs."

"Thats cos it isn't. We can't go back through the Fort because its being watched by the Drachmans and they certainly would have upped the patrols around there now news of your escape has spread. Therefore we are going through the tunnel."

"Tunnel? What tunnel? I didn't know there was a tunnel into Drachma!"

"There wasn't. I made it."

"Edward do you have any idea what an unguarded entrance into our country could do to us if the Drachmans find out about this?!"

"Yes, thats why Al and the team is guarding it and why as soon as we've left I will collapse it, that way it can't be used by our enemies."

"Are they really going to be enough to keep this entry safe till we get there?"

"They should be, either way if it can't be kept safe it I've told Al to collapse it and that we will just go a different way."

"Okay then, do you know how much further before we reach the tunnel?"

I could practically hear the eye roll as he spoke, "about another two or three hours or there about."

**xxx(Ed POV)xxx**

My ports burned fiercely but I refused to complain about them because frankly it would achieve nothing bar annoying Mustang and bringing down the Drachmans on our heads and while normally the former would be enough of a reason to indulge, the later presented a solid reason not to.

I was very aware of the eyes boring into my back and could only feel somewhat proud that I was managing to mess with Mustang without even really doing anything, my usual immature brat act probably led him to think that I would have complained despite the threat of the Drachmans but I was far from an immature brat. I kept up the pretences for reasons such as people trusting you more when you were loud, obnoxious and blunt, not necessarily with their secrets, but they trusted that you couldn't hide things from them, making it much easier to play them.

Grimacing when my automail leg sunk in a particularly deep patch of snow, all the way up to my hip, I wiggled slightly trying to pull myself out and after a few moments I could tell it wasn't going to happen. Huffing out an irritated breath I held a hand out to Mustang and said "could you give me a hand? I'm a little stuck..."

The narrow eyed stare he was directing at me looked like he was rethinking my identity, although he did grasp my hand and wordlessly pull me from the deep patch of snow. Nodding I started walking again, "thanks General Jackass."

It indeed took about two and a half more hours before we reached the mountain and once we did I scanned the skies carefully and then estimated we needed to move a bit further west. Nodding to myself I set off again, this time hugging the mountain side and once I spotted the weird looking rock outcropping that I made as a marker I started tapping the rock beside me. TAP TAP TAP. Listening intently I was hunched over slightly, ear pressed to the wall when Mustang interrupted me to ask "Fullmetal what on earth are you doing?"

Fighting back the urge to shout at him I just shot him a dirty look and muttered a quiet "ssssshhhhh" at him and continued to tap at the rock. TAP TAP THUNK. Ahah! Stepping back I clapped my hands together, relishing the sparks of alchemy racing up my arms and pressed my palms lightly against the stone in front of me. Smirking at the General's startled face as the wall melted away to reveal a dimly lit tunnel, as well as six vaguely surprised sets of eyes.

"Brother! That was quick you only left two days ago, I thought you said it might take a week?"

Pushing Mustang into the tunnel, I quickly sealed the wall up behind us before I replied "the soldiers are surprisingly trusting if you speak the same language. I just had to do a bit of snooping in the records room to find out which officer was in charge of moving Roy and then I just had to nudge the idiot until he thought to ask me to help him out and then bam, he's leading me right to Sparky's cell and a minutes later we're free as a bird! Oh! By the way did you need to choke me that hard?"

"Choke?!"

"You nearly broke my wrists!"

"First of all I was not going to break your wrists and second of all, choking someone is a little more lethal than broken wrists!"

Apparently interpreting the General's narrowed eyes the same way as me, Al decided to interrupt our little spat with an overly cheerful exclamation of "well I'm just glad you and the General are both okay, lets get you some clean dry clothes and hopefully your automail will warm up a bit while you change." Rolling my eyes and smiling at Al's need to avoid conflict, I let my brother lead me over to the small room we had set up for changing, as we had Hawkeye with us, and quickly started stripping out of the damp and freezing and guard uniform.

Patting my automail dry, so Winry wouldn't skin me alive when we got back, I hurried into some dry clothes Al handed me and then ran the towel over my hair, trying to get some of the ice crystals in it to melt.

Still chilled and with damp hair, I finally dragged myself out of the changing room and back into the tunnel. Grimacing and rubbing at my automail port, where it still ached something fierce, I tried to jumpstart my brain and figure out exactly what array I would need to cave in the tunnel in a safe and controlled manor that would attract the least attention from the Drachmans.

**Roy POV**

Fullmetal had been quiet since we had started moving, face drawn in concentration and eyes distant. Clearly this wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence, as his brother had simply taken hold of his arm and started physically steering him, presumably so he didn't walk straight into a wall.


End file.
